I CAN SEE FOR MILES
Officials with Stantec, Katz Group Real Estate and the city gather on the 69th floor, 251 metres above ICE District, Friday to commemorate the topping off of the Stantec Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Canada outside Toronto.
Look up — all the way up — and look some more.
Eventually you’ll find yourself atop the 69-storey Stantec Tower in downtown Edmonton where members of the homegrown company, Katz Group Real Estate, and the City of Edmonton gathered Friday to celebrate the topping off of the 251-metre tall skyscraper, making it the tallest highrise in Canada outside of Toronto.
“Sixty-nine floors up it felt like sitting with the sun out ... a little bit warmer and you could have had a beer out there and enjoyed the view,” said Katz Group Real Estate president, Glen Scott. “You look down on every single element of the city — the Strathcona refineries out to the east, you can see the entire University of Alberta campus looking down, the Kinsmen Field House in the river valley, you can look down on. It’s spectacular.”
The sight was doubly special for Stantec president and CEO Gord Johnston, who grew up in the Edmonton area but moved away for 25 years before taking the head job at Stantec a year ago.
“I’ve never seen the city from this perspective before,” Johnston said. “I moved back to Edmonton in January 2018. But to be able to see, in all directions, how far the city has grown, how much it’s changed during that period of time ... it’s quite the experience, really.”
The commercial level of the tower was topped off almost exactly one year ago on Nov. 17, 2017, with the first 29 floors of workspace dedicated for 1,500 Stantec employees, who just finished moving in to their new digs over the weekend.
Previously, Stantec’s staff was sprawled out between four or five different locations, Johnston said, and the move to consolidate the workforce was a long time coming.
“For us, that’s really what we wanted to do as part of this,” said Johnston. “Not just to recommit to the city but to rebuild our Stantec family here in Edmonton.”
Scott would not tip his hat too much as to any special announcements in the future, but he did mention the idea of adding “special elements ” at the top of the tower once it’s complete.
“We’re hoping to animate the top ... something that will be quite a visible beacon for the Ice District and the downtown and be a real attraction for anchoring people in the downtown core,” said Scott.
The upper Sky Residences, which are slated be completed by fall 2019, will have 483 condominiums as well as an outdoor patio, fireplaces and barbecues, a hot tub, kitchen, fitness centre, billiards room and other amenities.
The construction crane is expected to come off the tower by next April, with the building finished in its entirety by the end of 2019.